


these hands were made for loving you

by castielfalls



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-26
Updated: 2018-05-26
Packaged: 2019-05-14 01:55:04
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,108
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14760392
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/castielfalls/pseuds/castielfalls
Summary: tony works on a gift for someone in need of stable hands.





	these hands were made for loving you

Tony Stark rarely does anything for anyone and that is the number one fact about him that everyone knows.

Sure, he made a suit for Peter Parker, the friendly neighborhood Spiderman, but that’s because Peter’s the son Tony always wished he had. He didn’t count, everyone already knew from the moment they met that Tony would spoil him rotten. 

Bruce walks into the workshop to see Tony working on something and his first guess is, “New suit?” 

Tony shakes his head, referring to the jumbled up blueprints while fiddling with the device. It’s still too early in its development for Bruce to identify what it’s supposed to be, plus the blueprints are drawn on separate sheets so he couldn’t make any sense of it. 

Tony says, reading some notes from the papers sprawled across the worktable, “This, Bruce, is a gift.” 

Bruce nods, taking a seat on the chair as he watches Tony work, “For who, Peter?” 

Tony runs a hand through his hair, comparing two different shades of blue before settling on a strong azure tone, “No, not the kid. Someone else.”

“You plan on getting specific?” Bruce questions, picking up one of the papers to read. 

There’s a list of different pantone colors for red and blue but it doesn’t give Bruce any hint as to who this ‘gift’ is for. The only person who dons red and blue that comes to Bruce’s mind is Peter Parker but Tony had deemed the guess incorrect. 

Tony gives him a quirk of his lip as he takes the paper back, cancelling all the blue shades except for the one he settled on earlier, “No. It’s a surprise.” 

Bruce snorts, “You must like this person a lot if you’re making something for them.”

“You calling me stingy, Banner?”

“Well, you’re not exactly generous,” Bruce smiles, standing. “Well, I’ll leave you to it. Good luck with… whatever that’s supposed to be.”

* * *

Steve comes into the Avengers headquarters with Bucky to see Tony at the kitchen island sipping at a cup of coffee, writing relentlessly on the translucent blueprint paper. There’s at least three empty cups of coffee pushed aside and rings under Tony’s eyes, more than usual. 

Bucky raises an eyebrow at the sight and asks, “What had you up all night? New suit?”

“Not a new suit. I just made the nanotech one which is amazing. I don’t need to work on another suit for a while. This is something else, completely unrelated to me,” Tony fires off, sighing as he drops the papers, bringing the empty cups to the sink. 

Steve tries to read it but he frowns as he realizes the only words he can comprehend on the blueprints are shades of red and blue.

“Is this some kind of glove?” Bucky tries.

Tony snaps his fingers, pointing towards Bucky, “Bingo. Yes, that’s it. Any more guesses?” 

Steve reads the messy handwriting, “Um… it says here ‘shock absorbers’ and ‘mechanical and electronic stabilization’, so I’m going for… hand stabilizers?”

“You two are on fire today,” Tony comments casually, taking the papers back from Steve. 

Steve asks, “Who are those for?”

“Nobody you need to know. Now go on your stupid date or whatever. I have work to do.”

* * *

Stephen Strange hates emotions, but he especially hates the feeling of worthlessness.

He used to be a top-level surgeon and now he can’t even write without his hands trembling like they’re possessed by earthquakes. He can do all this magic, save people outside the operating room, but he still feels like shit about it. He studied years for that kind of life, he practically lived in the operating room but because of his hands, he could never step foot in that room again. It’s a long time ago but it still hurts.

Yeah, maybe it isn’t so bad. If he hadn’t gotten into that accident and damaged the nerves in his hands, he would never have learnt magic, never met Tony Stark, the man under the red and gold armor. He would never have met his ‘son’ Peter Parker, who turned out to be that boy in the spider costume down in Queens. They’re wonderful. There’s no other word Stephen can think of.

Peter visits the Sanctum Sanctorum sometimes after school and at first, Stephen thought of him as a disturbance. That was until he realized Peter doesn’t even do anything. He just quietly works on his web shooters. Apparently, he went to the Sanctum Sanctorum because he doesn’t want to risk his Aunt May walking in on him and he liked Stephen’s company, even if the time spent together was riddled with prolonged silences and the occasional small talk.

Peter asks about his hands sometimes, why they shake like that. 

“It’s okay. Mr Stark, he gets these anxiety attacks sometimes. He loses sense of what’s going on and he runs away for a while. Do your hands shake because you’re scared?” Peter says when Stephen doesn’t answer. 

Maybe he’s scared. Stephen’s scared of a lot more things than his ego allows him to admit.

* * *

Tony visits Stephen with Peter one day.

Peter is excited. It’s not like he isn’t typically excited, but he seems even more so that day. When Stephen asks him why, Peter just beams at him and proceeds to work on his web shooters. He’s trying to get the webs more stable, he says. Tony rolls his eyes, not uncharacteristically of the sarcastic man. Stephen offers to get them drinks, but he instantly regrets it when the glasses slip through his trembling fingers and shatter on the floor.

The Sanctum Sanctorum is silent for a few seconds before Stephen is apologizing, “Sorry. I… It’s my hands. I’ll clean this up.” 

He uses his magic this time, cursing inwardly when he notices his hands shaking within the green rings of time reversal magic.

“Strange, it’s okay.”

“No, Tony. It’s not okay. It’ll never be! Don’t you see? I’m nothing without my hands. They can’t do anything right except shake like leaves. I used to be able to do delicate surgeries and now I can’t even hold a glass of water!” Stephen explodes. 

Peter licks his lips anxiously as he glances between the two older men and he says softly, “Mr Dr Strange, I think you’re an amazing hero, with or without your hands.”

“Thank you, Peter, but that’s not true. I may be a hero, but what if I never learnt magic? Then I’ll be the useless surgeon with the shaking hands,” Stephen says frustratedly. 

Tony reaches out and takes one of Stephen’s hands in his own, tentatively stroking his quivering fingers one by one, “You’re our talented wizard with the beautiful hands.” 

Stephen is scared of a lot of things. One of those is attachment.

* * *

“Why are you making gloves?” Thor asks when he walks into the Avengers headquarters. Tony is at the kitchen island again, this time with red and blue metal forming the shape of hands laid out in front of him as he revises the blueprints.

“It’s a gift,” Tony says, the three words feeling familiar, having been repeated many times the past few weeks. 

Thor nods slowly, placing Mjölnir on the kitchen island as he studies one of the gloves, “This person must mean a lot to you, yes?”

“You could say that.”

“Does the prideful man of Iron have feelings for someone?” Thor teases. 

Tony doesn’t respond, but his fingers dance across the metal of the glove’s as he says absently, “These should look sleeker. I should head back to the workshop, rework it.”

* * *

It has been fifty weeks since Tony started on the gift and Tony’s visits to the Sanctum Sanctorum have grown more frequent. Wong doesn’t even bother with letting him in anymore, giving him a spare key per Stephen’s request, much to Tony’s delight. Peter is equally happy, enjoying spending time with both Tony and Stephen. 

Tony likes exploring the place sometimes, read some of the spell books and read up on the artifacts housed there. The one artifact he can’t make sense of is the Cloak of Levitation. Apparently it protects Stephen. How, Tony doesn’t exactly know. He rarely sees Stephen in battle, the wizard preferring to stay indoors unless a big threat comes by.

He hears a bang from Stephen’s study and he runs over out of instinct, peeping into the room. Stephen has his head in his hands and his shoulders are shaking slightly, quiet weeping escaping from his lips. Tony is about to walk in, talk to him, but the Cloak floats over from its place on Stephen’s chair and wraps itself around his hands. When Tony sees Stephen sobbing into the Cloak, it’s then he realizes how the Cloak protects Stephen.

He really hopes his gift protects Stephen too.

* * *

It’s finally complete. Prototype after prototype, Tony managed to rework the chunky gloves into nanotech. It’s red and blue, like Stephen’s cloak and clothes. He decided that the metal was too taxing and would probably be unsuitable, so something that looked like normal gloves but had nanotech to keep his hands stable would work best.

Peter has been jumping off the walls about this for weeks. Every time he visits Tony in the workshop, he keeps asking how long more until it’s done. Well, it’s done, finally.

Peter and Tony visit Stephen together, the gloves wrapped in comic pages from newspapers. Peter wrapped them himself, using gold marker to write ‘To the talented wizard with the beautiful hands’ over the newspaper print. Tony writes in black pen, in smaller print under Peter’s writing ‘happy birthday’.

They enter the Sanctum Sanctorum with Tony’s spare key, seeing that it’s empty. Wong comes by and says Stephen will be down in a while and when the wizard in question makes his appearance, Tony is heartbroken at the sight of bloodied bandages on his hands.

“What happened?” Peter asks, gesturing vaguely to the bandages. 

Stephen glances down at his hands before waving dismissively, “I dropped glass again. Nothing too major. What’s that?” 

It’s Stephen’s turn to point to them, the package in Tony’s hands.

“It’s for you. Happy birthday, Stephen.”

Stephen stares speechlessly at the two before he reaches out, taking the package with both hands so he doesn’t drop it, “I didn’t think you knew. Thank you.” 

Stephen smiles faintly at the writing on the newspaper and Tony feels a grin grow on his own face at the sight of the happy wizard. It soon drops when Stephen struggles with opening the wrapping because his hands are shaking so much (from both nerve damage and nervousness.)

“Here, I’ll open it for you,” Tony offers, taking it from Stephen and tearing off the newspaper carefully, knowing 

Stephen would like to keep the writing on the comic pages. Stephen watches silently as Tony lifts the gloves up towards him.

“Tony, I don’t know if this is a dumb question, but what is that for?” Stephen questions and Tony takes one of Stephen’s hands in his own gently, pulling the thin fabric over it.

“What do you think?”

Stephen Strange didn’t believe in miracles, but that was before he met Tony Stark.

“My hands… They’re not shaking,” Stephen marvels in awe and Tony grins pridefully, glad that his invention was working perfectly. 

Stephen pulls on the other glove and he can’t resist smiling, because for the first time since the accident, his hands were stable and it’s because of the first miracle he’d ever come to know — Tony.

“So I take it you like it,” Tony jokes.

Stephen replies gratefully, “More than like it. I love it. Thank you.” 

Peter is grinning uncontrollably at the side, too taken over by elation to say anything. 

Tony nods toward his hands, “So now your hands aren’t useless anymore, right?”

Tony is so overcome with pride and delight that he almost doesn’t register Stephen’s hands on his face. He also almost doesn’t register that there isn’t the sensation of fabric but Stephen’s skin, the fingertips trembling against Tony’s cheeks.

“Tony, if I’ve learnt anything during the time I’ve known you, it’s that these hands were never useless, because these hands were made for loving you,” Stephen says so delicately, like he’s operating on his friendship with Tony and one wrong word would throw it off the rails. 

Tony picks up on it, because he whispers, his lips inches away from Stephen’s, “I love you too.”

Stephen had focussed so much on his hands’ use in the operating room that he had forgotten the people who loved his hands for every flaw they possessed because yes, these hands were made for loving him.

**Author's Note:**

> “these hands were made for loving you” can mean what stephen said, but here’s a reminder that tony basically made the ‘hands’ (gloves) for stephen because he loved him.  
> so yes, it could be that stephen finds beauty in his hands because tony loved him regardless of them, or it could be that tony made those ‘hands’ because he loved stephen.


End file.
